Pieces of the Past
by Honourable Fool
Summary: One-shot. Who knew walking into an art gallery could be such a life changing event? Certainly not Heero Yuy. But the girl in the painting called to him...


AN/ Hey, guys! This is kind of random, I know, but this idea struck me as I was working on some of my other GW stuff and I decided to see how it would turn out. I hope it's alright and not too sappy. It's sort of my attempt to ease Heero's torments a little, you know? The ones I usually drag up and expound upon when writing larger things because I'm cruel… Right. Anyways, let me know what you think when you read it. And go check out Surprises and Tribulations which I _should_ be updating at the same time as this.

Disclaimer: Must you remind me? Fine, I do not own Gundam Wing or it's characters! mumbles Bubble bursters!

Pieces of the Past  
By: Honourable Fool

* * *

"This place is nice!" Hilde said, looking around.

"Yea, sure. I guess." Duo shrugged, looking back at Heero for support. He didn't give any so Duo turned back to look around again. "Not much in it."

"Well that's the point, isn't it?" Hilde responded in a 'Duh' voice.

"Yes," Relena agreed. "If there were lots of furniture it would distract people from the art."

"Right. So, what are we doin here again?" Duo asked.

"We're here because I'm sick of having to stare at Heero's Spartan walls every time I go over to his apartment." Relena said, leading the way into the small gallery.

"Hn." Heero grunted. It wasn't really a response.

A moment later something caught Hilde's attention and she pulled Duo over to it against his will, leaving Heero alone by the entrance. Approaching the wall where Relena was examining some paintings, he glanced at the art he passed. There were all sorts of different things people had done; landscapes, flowers, rivers, oceans, rowboats, a plethora of things that did not attract his eye in the least.

Relena was studying a picture of a lady on a tree swing in a nice, old fashioned dress. There was a young blond girl beside her in a peach dress and it appeared that they were sitting in a very green garden.

She looked at him over her shoulder as he approached, noting the blank look. "Don't worry, I wasn't thinking of this for you. I just thought it was nice."

"Hn." He shrugged noncommittally. Relena sighed, shaking her head, and looked back at the picture. It was certainly nothing he'd consider. Nothing on this wall was. Looking around he noticed Duo had wandered into a sort of back room that had more pictures in it. Walking in he found that they were all photos and nearly all of them were black and white.

Just as he was beginning to look at them a door opened in the back of the gallery and a small, older woman came out. She was shorter than even Hilde and very thin. Her tanned skin seemed pulled tight over her thin body so that every tendon and vein stuck out in small cords on her hands and neck, her small head seeming to just float above her body. Her hair was still a light brown color in places but a dark, silver grey seemed to be taking over as wisps of the dual-colored hair fell around her kind face from the loose knot she had tied it into. Spotting customers her grey eyes lit up and she came into the room, looking around.

"Are you all together?" she asked. Her tone was hard, but her voice was not cold. It was a gruff sound that was none-the-less pleasant and inviting.

Hilde nodded. "Yes. And I just have to say some of your artwork is absolutely beautiful!"

The woman smiled. "Thank you. But if you mean the paintings, those aren't mine. However they were all done by local artists. The photos are mostly mine."

"Hey, Heero," Duo's voice called suddenly. "Take a look at this!"

When he reached where Duo was standing he looked at the photo that had caught his attention. It was really very nice. It was a picture of a big mecha, it may have been Leo but it was hard to tell, that had been seated on the ground, its huge torso leaning over its bent legs. All that could be seen of the mobile suit was its huge feet and its "head" as it sat forward. But sitting between the suit's feet, in a perfect imitation of its position, was a young boy. He couldn't have been more than eight or nine, yet he was dressed up like a soldier, an automatic lying on the ground next to him. Heero only needed one glance to know it was real. On the opposite edge of the picture a fire could be seen along with the shapes of men just before they were cut off. Heero looked again at the boy. His face was very young, but something about his hair and that look…

"Ah yes. That's one of mine." The woman told them. She had come over too to see what had attracted the young men. "I took that picture years ago, about nine or ten years after the assassination of Heero Yuy. I was a photo journalist then and was fortunate enough to be able to follow for a while a group of guerilla fighters. I was amazed by that young boy. He was a soldier, one of the best mobile suit pilots among them. I remember he didn't have a name. He wasn't violent or crude, he just ate and slept and fought and never seemed to have any other thought in his head. The entire time I was there I never once heard him speak." She looked fondly at the picture a moment. "This is one of my favorites. Sometimes I wonder what ever happened to that boy."

The entire time she was speaking Duo was giving Heero meaningful looks that he chose to ignore. Just then Hilde called her over to ask about another piece, leaving the young men alone.

"Alright, now tell me if I'm crazy…" Duo started.

"You're crazy." Heero responded flatly.

"Ha ha! Very funny, Heero. Anyways, doesn't that look exactly like Trowa?"

But Heero didn't have to answer. He knew the moment he had seen the boy's face that he was to one day pilot the Gundam Heavyarms. But over the years since the war ended Trowa had changed. He still didn't smile much but it was obvious he was happier than he had been, less haunted by his past than the boy Heero had met so long ago. That boy had buried his heart away from years of war and fighting, a teenager tormented by the child who had no childhood. But now Trowa had learned to feel, to love. He was no longer that shell of a boy who sat crouched between the feet of his mecha every night.

"No Duo, that looks nothing like the Trowa we know now." He said at last, and then turned away from the photo. That was No Name's past. That was not the friend they knew.

Walking back to the front room, past where Hilde and the owner were still chatting about one of her photos, he found Relena looking on the opposite wall from where he'd left her. These paintings were a bit less usual, some of them actually abstract. Relena was looking at a strange one that was a whirl of bright and dark colors that bled into one another in a way that made him feel uncomfortable. The one next to it, however, caught his attention almost immediately.

It was a landscape piece, but it was not like the others. It featured a grassy hill being swept by a gentle wind. Curving around in the background was the grey wall of a colony, reaching up indistinctly until it faded into a blue illusion of sky and clouds. It was odd how nothing was distinctly outlined, yet he could feel how the breeze ran through the blades of grass. Still, the most interesting part of the picture to him was standing on top of the hill halfway between background and foreground, lost somewhere in the expanse of all that space. A young girl stood in the soft wind, her white dress and sun hat gently being tugged at. She had long, light brown, waist length hair that floated on the air. Beside her was a small golden puppy. He could still hear it's faint, echoing bark. She held in her hand something very small, something he could hardly see, but he did not need to see it to know it was a small golden flower.

"It's nice, isn't it Heero?" Relena asked. He didn't respond.

He knew that white dress, the little dog. He knew the smile that was on the girls face even though he couldn't see it. Her laugh still echoed in his head. Why was she here?

"Heero?" Relena called.

But before he could respond the owner spoke up from just behind them. "Do you like it?"

"Oh, yes. It's quite nice." Relena said, casting a glance at Heero. He was still staring at the painting.

"Yes, my grandniece painted it."

"Really? She's very talented. Does she have anything else here?"

The woman laughed. "Oh, no! She's much too busy with school. She's only 16!"

"Sixteen! That's incredible!" Heero had to resist a smirk at Relena's words. By the age of sixteen she'd not only ruled her own kingdom for a short time, but she'd also been Queen of the Earth.

"Yes. She calls it "Lost" but she won't tell me why. It is a lovely painting and she already has so much talent! If you'd like to ask her about it I'm sure she'll be home from school soon."

"Oh, does she live with you?"

"Yes. She lost her parents, my poor niece and her husband, eight years ago when a terrorist bombed a nearby mobile suit factory. The explosion went beyond the factory and destroyed several apartment buildings in the area."

"Oh, how awful!" Relena responded, her voice perfectly sympathetic. "Yes, we all suffered so many hardships during the war."

"Mmmm." The woman agreed. "I've never been a religious woman, but I still thank God my little Chrissie lived. It was just her luck that that evening she went to a sleepover party at a friend's house or else she would have been killed with her parents."

Heero listened to all this numbly, never once turning around. Chrissie? Was that… _her_? Could he hope for as much?

Just then the soft bell on the top of the door rang as it opened. "Ah, speak of the devil!" the woman said jovially. In the other room Duo turned with a soft, 'what?' "Chrissie, these people were just admiring your painting."

"Oh." A soft, high voice answered. Heero felt his heart thump in his chest. If he turned around, would it be the same girl?

"It's so nice to meet you." Relena was saying. "You're very talented."

"Thanks." The girl responded as Heero turned, almost afraid to see. She must have been staring at the back of his head, because as soon as he faced her their eyes met. She was short and small, like her aunt, with elbow length, light brown hair and a pair of lavender eyes. For a moment they just looked at each other, and then she smiled. "Do you like my painting?"

Heero blinked at her. "It's very nice." He said at last. He could feel Relena was watching him, but he didn't look at her. "Why did you name it 'Lost'?" He asked.

She seemed to smile a little bit. Did she recognize him? "Because that was the first time I ever felt lost." Walking past them she stood beside her own painting a moment, considering it. "This was the day I lost my parents. I took my dog Mary for a walk and I met a young boy. He had dark, haunted eyes. I'll never forget them. They were so sad even when he laughed! He said he'd always been lost but I had never been lost. When I found out my parents died I finally understood why he looked like that, why he was lost. I was lost too."

"And are you still lost?"

Chrissie looked up at his question, surprised. His words seemed to confirm something in her mind and she flashed him that same smile he remembered, the smile that had haunted his dreams.

"I'm not lost at all! I miss my parents and my dog Mary, and I probably always will. But I have my Great Aunt Jane and my paintings. And I have my memories. I don't think I'll ever be lost again." Heero nodded. "What about you? Are you lost?"

Out of the corner of his eye he saw Relena raise her eyebrow at the girl's question. He looked at her then, his gaze attracting her attention. Her summer-sky-blue eyes were puzzled, but as always when she looked at him, there was a look deep within them of contentment and joy. A look that was home.

Turning to the young girl before him, he said, "No, not anymore." She giggled, somehow understanding exactly what he meant. "I'd like to buy your painting, if that's alright."

Chrissie looked at it, considering for a moment. "I think it was always meant for you to take." She said. Somehow he knew what she meant.

"Good, but I'll only buy it on one condition." The no longer nameless girl looked at him with her lavender eyes, eyes that were alive and happy despite his blunder, eyes that forgave him even if they didn't fully understand what for. "Rename it 'Mary'. I think that would be more appropriate." Chrissie smiled at him again the same way she'd done eight years ago. Neither of them had to say it. They both understood immediately.

Five minutes later the four friends walked out of the art gallery, Heero with the painting renamed 'Mary' carefully wrapped and under his arm. "Definitely very nice." Hilde was saying. "I think we should go there again."

"If you girls insist!" Duo sighed, pretending to like it less than he had.

As they walked down the street Heero grabbed Relena's hand with his free one and pulled her back from their friends. She looked up, surprised by the sudden, public contact. It was unusual for him. "Heero?"

When he looked at her a rare smile graced his lips, surprising her further. It wasn't incredibly obvious, just a softening of his face, an upward curve of the very corners of his lips, a gentleness in his eyes that he so rarely revealed. "Thank you." He whispered.

Her face was flushed with his beauty, delighted by how close she was allowed to be to him, here in public where everyone could see. "For what?"

Lowering his head a little, he placed a soft kiss on her forehead. "For making me go in there." A warm smile touched her face, matching his. She still didn't understand what had passed between him and that young girl, but it didn't matter. Heero was alright. Better, in fact, than he had been before. She didn't need to understand it, she was only glad for it.

Lifting herself up on her toes, she placed a kiss on his lips, whispering close to his face, "Your welcome." Placing his arm around her waist they continued after their friends. He decided right then and there that he wasn't going to wait any longer. The little girl that had haunted him was gone, he could move on. Hugging Relena close in the cold air, Heero finally understood what it meant to be happy, to be home. He was no longer lost. That's when the snow began to fall.

* * *

AN/ Aww! So, tell me what you think! Not too fluffy or sappy I hope. And surprisingly non angsty. I didn't expect that. Oh well. Below is Inazuma Akai's 5 Star rating guide (thank you Inazuma-sama) (say that five times fast!), please use it when you review. Or don't. You know, that's fine. And don't be afraid to pull out those flame throwers! I haven't been roasted yet! Oh, and if you like Inazuma Akai's 5 star rating guide just PM her from her profile page. She doesn't bite. gulp much? Kidding!

Inazuma Akai's 5 Star Rating System for Fanfiction:

1 star – This fic is unreadable! Get a beta-reader stat!

2 stars – This story needs a face-lift in the worst possible way…

3 stars – Not bad, but with a little more effort you can make it a really good fic.

4 stars – There are some minor errors here and there but otherwise it's a very nice fic!

5 stars – It's an exceptional work of art! More, please?

Don't forget to Review! TTFN!


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